As they went down the steps she took his arm. "Tom, darling, I'm proud
of you. Now they know where we stand, both of us."
"It was splendid of you, Hildred, to play up like that. It backs me
tremendously that you're not afraid to own me. But, you know, what I've
just said will put us farther apart."
"Oh, I don't know about that. Father said we couldn't be engaged unless
you were acknowledged as Mr. Whitelaw's son; and you have been. He
never said anything about your being Mrs. Whitelaw's son. This is a
case in which it's the father that counts specially."
"But I couldn't take any of his money beyond what I earned."
"Oh, but that wouldn't make any difference."
They crossed the Avenue and entered the Park. They entered the Park
because it was the obvious place in which to look for a little privacy.
All the gay sweet life of the May afternoon was at its brightest.
Riders were cantering up and down the bridle-path; friends were
strolling; children were playing; birds were flying with bits of string
or straw for the building of their nests. To Tom and Hildred the
gladness was thrown out by the deeper gladness in themselves.
"But you don't know how poor we'll be."
"Oh, don't I? Where do you think I keep my eyes? Why, I expect to be
poor when I marry--for a while at any rate. I expect to do my own
housework, like most of the young married women I know."
"Oh, but you've always talked so much about servants."
"Yes, dear Tom, but that was to be on a desert island where we were to
be all alone. We shan't find that island except in our hearts."
"But even without the island, I always supposed that when a girl like
you got married she...."
"She began with an establishment on the scale of ours in Louisburg
Square, at the least. Yes, that used to be the way, twenty or thirty
years ago. But I'm sorry to say it isn't so any longer. Talk about
revolution! We've got revolution as it is. With rents and wages as they
are, and all the other expenses, why, a young couple must begin with
the simple life, or stay single. I'd rather begin with the simple life,
and I know more about it than you think."